Notes from the Field: Resourcing Whole Communities

We joined the Whole Communities Project Partnership in 2024 alongside LeadersTrust and the Center for Third World Organizing to support awarded and unawarded practitioners and leaders from the Fund for Liberatory Practice and the Praxis Project. Our goal was to:

1. Resource BIPOC, women, and gender non-conforming-led movement spaces where equity, liberation, and a focus on systemic transformation are core.
2. Co-create a loving space for in-time learning, peer support, healing, and connection. Movements are rooted in strength, connection, and abundance.
3. Build and deepen relationships between participants and strengthen the threads that make up a nascent network of liberatory practitioners.
4. Ensure BIPOC movement leaders and liberatory practitioners feel a sense of ease and joy in their work.
5. Invite leaders of the social good sector to move towards collective liberation, which seeks power, joy, and thriving for all people.

At our very first Whole Communities Virtual Learning Space, we asked what would make liberation more possible for you and the people you love. One of our participants, Nafasi Ferrell, shared something that has stayed with me: “Liberation is possible,” she said, “if we refuse to give up on one another and we have the time and patience to do so.” What I heard in her reply was a call to action. Liberation demands the refusal of dominant norms to succumb to organized abandonment. Liberation takes a commitment to each other, especially to not give up on one another. Liberation takes time, patience, and many chances to practice a new way forward. My colleagues Ericka Stallings, Iman Mills Gordon, and I were moved by the clarity of her vision and excited to co-create a learning space rooted in joy, intention, and power and empower us all to do just work in just ways. 

The Virtual Learning Space has remained a space of love, healing, in-time learning, peer support, and connection intended to honor the lived experience of Black and BIPOC liberatory leaders. In our monthly gatherings, we’ve shared family stories; held sacred space to honor breath and reconnect to our bodies; learned from guest speakers and trainers eager to share different organizational models and tools that have shaped their own liberatory practice; time traveled to experience our liberatory visions for a new world come to life; explicitly named our work, our values and the communities we serve; written into new stories and recommitted to our shared vision of liberation; shared resources; and created many avenues of participation for community members who were unable to join the monthly virtual learning series. We are thankful for the opportunity to create a gentle and intentional space held by black women for black women to deepen and expand the practice of liberatory leadership.

These are some things we’ve learned in our time together:

• Trust Deepens Trust: Through intentional check-ins and conversations about leadership practices rooted in care and authenticity, participants were able to cultivate relationships with each other that sustained them through difficult moments and supported them in celebrating progress. Our gatherings became a place where we were led by joy and embodied celebration over competition and vulnerability over stoic heroism. This became especially important as participants became resources to each other through peer support and skills-sharing. As one of our participants, Nafasi Ferrell, shared: “Liberation is possible if we don’t give up on one another and we have the time and patience to do so.”
• Honor Breath: After recognizing the many responsibilities our participants held outside of our virtual learning space, we honored movement and breath during every meeting by dancing, breathing, and drinking mindfully. Slowing down helped us access the stories shaping participants’ understanding of their own leadership journeys. What emerged out of our conversations was a tapestry of healing, forgiveness, and a desire for brave spaces to more gracefully unpack the grief Black women are holding as leaders, movement organizers, entrepreneurs, mothers, daughters, and community members.  
• Strengthen Understanding of Liberatory Approaches to Leadership: providing a wide array of resources and programmatic tools for participants to deepen their learnings and honor their healing journeys allowed participants to feel recharged & gain tools to push back against burnout culture. We learned that participants both need to be resourced and feel supported in their particular leadership journeys for them to practice, iterate, and experiment in their liberatory leadership journey. We created space for participants to push back against definitions and share more about how they embody their values as they stretch their skills and find their edges. 
• Build The Boat and The Bridge: As much as we love a spaciously held and tightly facilitated session, we learned that building the container that holds these meaningful conversations was not enough. We also had to capture and share resources and skill-building moments with the community. We did that by creating a resource hub as well as a newsletter that shared recaps from every session, job resources, report-outs from member organizations, and liberatory leadership development resources. Creating entry points of authentic connection so anyone can join, learn, and share is important to this work and is appreciated by those who cannot always join monthly virtual learning spaces.
• Resource All Community Members: Because Whole Communities is a large network of over five hundred members across three member organizations, we had to get creative about engaging folks through as many avenues of participation as possible to honor their needs. In addition to the monthly virtual gatherings, we invited folks to join our BIPOC Affinity gathering, which meets virtually and with a wider community of coaches, consultants, and liberatory leaders from across the country. In addition, we freed up resources for members to share a meal with other whole community members in their area; engage a writing coach and share their leadership journey with us via a blog series; and join our resource hub on Circle.

Some reflections from participants:

“The Whole Communities Learning Space Is doing such important work! They are reimagining what liberatory leadership can be today and in the future. From the moment I logged on to the video call through to closing reflections, each gathering has been special, and I’ve left feeling full and seen and having my leadership skills stretched and nurtured. Participating has tapped into my creative side, and I’m understanding how that relates to my purpose as a leader. “ Julie Hurst, Educator and Advanced Breathwork Practitioner 

“This virtual learning space has been a collective journey of connection, growth, and transformation. Leadership is a shared responsibility, and we must continue to lift each other up and support one another as we strive for liberation. Our time together has shown me that when we gather with open hearts and minds, we can co-create a space where true transformation and healing are possible.” Nafasi Ferell, Principal Consultant & Founder, Narratives Unbound LLC.